Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA) will be conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study on the integrated museum and tourism complex at the Beach Road that has turned controversial with citizen’s groups demanding that the project be dropped, claiming it would damage the beach and pose environmental hazards to residents.
“The assessment (of the project) is going on. But people who have raised objections want us to record their conversations and post it on the net so that they can see people’s reactions, not our responses. That is their view to which we are not agreeable,” P Basanth Kumar, the metropolitan commissioner of the VMRDA, said.

“Consultation is required on this type of a public project, but consultation is not compulsory. Environmental impact assessment is not being wished away. It is an important part of our project. And it will be done,” Kumar said in an exclusive interaction with TOI.

“As metropolitan commissioner, I do not want to spoil even an iota of the environment. We are going to enrich it. We are going to give the tourists utmost priority,” he said.

Asked about the objection by local residents that the project would restrict their movement, he said that the VMRDA would form a “service line for these three-four localities so that they don’t get inconvenienced by the additional traffic”.

Kumar said that the Coastal Regulatory Zone regulations do not apply to the integrated museum and tourism complex because “most of the construction is on the landward side”.

He said VMRDA would be investing up to Rs 20 crore in the project. “The project is conceptualised as a convergence project, meaning that it will be funded by several government agencies,” he said.

Explaining the rationale for the “convergence” funding for the project, Kumar said that the VMRDA had jurisdiction over three districts — Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam. “I cannot use all the funds in Visakhapatnam itself. That is quite a repugnant idea to several of the MLAs from Visakhapatnam. That is why we came up with the idea of convergence funding for the project,” he said.